These photographs form a study of edges,
exploring the physical nature of a place and the philosophical delineations
separating it from emptiness. They were taken near and within residential
districts of urban Qatar, a region of rapid development where people eagerly
inscribe boundaries to mark where the next set of dwellings should rise. The
desert presses in from all sides, joining with the sky to form a heavy void
that appears both disturbing and entrancing; along that junction,
constructed neighborhoods attempt to flourish while preserving the barriers
that give them comfort.

These photographs ask questions of that void, without expecting answers.

Technical notes: All images are scans of medium format Ilford
film, shot with a Hasselblad between January and April 2013. Some rolls
were developed on-site in an ad-hoc darkroom in the biology department
of Carnegie Mellon University's Qatar campus, using a homemade
coffee-based solution; the rest were processed with commercially
available film chemistry in the Pittsburgh campus darkroom.